Due to the European Union’s sluggish procurement procedure, EU-bought vaccines will not suffice for mass inoculation, Gergely Gulyás, the PM’s chief of staff said at a news briefing. Hungary is working to achieve the 70% inoculation rate set by the European Commission as soon as possible, he said. However, it will also need vaccines from other sources, such as the UK’s AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm, he added, noting that the EU has yet to approve AstraZeneca, even though it has been in use since December.
Regarding Sputnik V, Gulyás said Hungary’s pharmaceutical authority approved the vaccine after a “thorough, two-month review”. Sputnik V is safe and was manufactured using cutting-edge technology, he said. Germany, he added, is currently looking to approve it. Hungary has contracted enough Sputnik to inoculate 300,000 people, he said. Sinopharm has proven to be very effective, as 15 million people worldwide have already been vaccinated using it, Gulyás said. Serbia is already using the vaccine to inoculate its citizens, among them ethnic Hungarians, he said. Meanwhile, Pfizer has delivered 13 million doses to the US, 2.7 million to Israel and 8.5 million to the European Union, he said, an amount which he said was too small for effective protection.
Regarding government measures to protect the economy, Gulyás noted the coronavirus pandemic had taken a toll on the hospitality industry. After talks with the sector’s representatives, the government is taking steps to speed up the payment of wage support for entrepreneurs hit by the pandemic, he said. Since the scheme’s introduction in November, the sector’s players have applied for a total of 27 billion forints, 7 billion of which has already been paid out, he said.
Gulyás criticised Brussels over its “unsuccessful” vaccine purchase procedure, noting similar criticism by other European politicians over delays. He said the European Commission was in a position to take legal action against vaccine producer Pfizer. If the commission could speed up deliveries in this way, then the Hungarian government would support legal steps, Gulyás added.
Regarding vaccination registration in Hungary, Gulyás noted that the number of applications has risen to over 2 million.
He called the Russian vaccine “undoubtedly one of the best” available today, arguing that interest towards it was also keen in western Europe. A licencing procedure for the vaccine in Europe will also begin soon, Gulyás said.
Commenting on possible vaccination of over-65s using the AstraZeneca product, Gulyás said all vaccines would be used in line with the authorities’ regulations. The European authority has not yet given approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine, Gulyás said, noting however that Hungary possessed a licence “based on a British licence”. Gulyás insisted that AstraZeneca’s was an excellent vaccine, and this also applied to the over-65s. He welcomed reports that the European authorities were set to approve the vaccine by the end of this month.
Asked about the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, Gulyás said Hungary is to take delivery of 500,000 doses next month, enough to inoculate 250,000 people. “We hope that Sinopharm will receive a temporary licence as soon as possible with a government decree already prepared to back it up,” he said, noting that the Chinese jab has already been used to inoculate 16 million people worldwide, including in Serbia. “It would be totally irresponsible to let lengthy examinations precede the issuance of a licence,” he said.
Gulyás said Hungary’s National Public Health Centre (NNK) will examine every type of imported vaccine.
Asked about the left-wing’s demand for restaurants and entertainment venues to be reopened, Gulyás noted that a few months ago the opposition had demanded the full shuttering of those facilities, even if there were fewer Covid-19 cases at that time. He said the venues would only be allowed to reopen if this did not endanger lives. He said the government was continually consulting with virologists and other experts on possible dates when such venues may reopen, adding there was a consensus among them on maintaining the status quo. The experts believe that only mass vaccinations would serve as a long-term solution, he said, adding that the act of reopening a restaurant in defiance of the rules would not be qualified as civil disobedience, and owners and guests risked being fined.
Gulyás said that extending the special legal order in force was necessary to maintain the current restrictions, including the curfew.
MTI
